Abstract: Difficult to fully or easily understand because it is intangible or theoretical and is not associated with a particular instance or concrete example. The concept of "hope" is more abstract than the concept of "house."

Academy Modules: Modules developed for students in the three content areas are referred to as Academy modules. The instructor's modules are created for orientation purposes and are not intended for professional development. Rather, they are designed to convey information about Academy modules and how they can be integrated into teacher education programs.

Background knowledge: A personal reservoir of information on a variety of topics; information retained in one's long-term memory.

Causal event chain: A string of occurrences laid out in a sequence indicating how one occurrence leads to another.

Cause-effect text: A type of expository text that gives reasons for why something happened.

Cognition: The process of knowing by thinking, comprehending, analyzing, or evaluating. Examples: Students use cognition to gain meaning from spoken or written material by reasoning, making inferences, seeing relationships, etc.

Cohesive ties: Linguistic devices that link structures within or between sentences so that relationships among ideas are clear to the reader.

Collocation: The placement of words close to each other to provide cohesion and promote comprehension.

Concept development: Stages in the process of forming an understanding of an abstract idea.

Considerate text: Text that is well-written and well-organized, thereby making it easy to understand.

Content Areas: OSEP has specified three content areas within the teacher education curriculum for the Academy to focus on. The content areas include reading, positive behavioral supports and technology in education. These are the content areas from which research-based interventions will be selected and transformed into instructional modules.

Descriptive text: A type of expository text that tells what something is.

Direct instruction: Instruction characterized by high rates of teacher involvement and control during the initial stages of information acquisition and careful performance monitoring as the learner gradually assumes control over application; structured, modular, and sequential instruction that emphasizes practice and mastery and provides a high level of successful experiences and positive feedback to the student.

Directed Questions: A series of questions about lesson content has been included as a feature in each module. A question is presented. Once students enter their response they are able to access exemplary answers. This allows them to compare their response to responses prepared by the Academy staff.

Ellipsis: Omission of one or more words that can be inferred from reading the content in the preceding text. Example: "Are you all packed for the trip?" "Yes, I am." [ready for the trip]

Enumeration: A type of text grammar where a list related to a topic is given.

Enumerative text: A type of expository text that gives a list related to a topic.

Episode structure: That part of the story grammar comprised of the initiating event, the internal response of the main character, actions of the main character in pursuit of the goal (which may include complications in that pursuit), the consequence or result of the actions, and the resolution.

Explicit: Completely and clearly expressed without ambiguity or vagueness; fully developed. Example: Explicit instructions would leave no doubt in your mind about what you were to do. Every part would be "spelled out."

Expository text: A collection of written words that gives information, explains something, or seeks to persuade. Most classroom textbooks are expository - science, social studies, health, etc.

Genre: A type or kind of text. There can be broad categories, such as expository and narrative, or more specific categories, such as novels, poetry, fables, plays, etc.

Graphic organizer: Visual depiction of information organized to enhance comprehension of it.

Implicit: Within the context of reading, implicit describes an idea that can be understood from reading even though it is not expressed directly, as opposed to explicit, which directly states the idea.

Inconsiderate text: Text that is poorly written, poorly organized, or both, thereby making it difficult to understand.

Inferential questions: Questions that refer to information in the text that is not directly stated, but implied. A student would have to "read between the lines" in order to understand the meaning intended by the author.

Language connection: The process of setting up and building an association among the differing processes of language; namely, listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Linguistics: Relating to languages or the study of human speech and speech sounds.

Macrostructure: The overall organizational pattern of a text.

Menu: There are menus for each level and lesson in an Academy module. Links to the level menus appear in the center of the menubar. Access any level menu by clicking the level titles in the center of the menubar. Click the up arrow (top right) to access the menu for the current level or to go to the next higher menu level. For example, if you are viewing a page in a lesson the up arrow takes you to the current Lesson menu then to the menu for all Lessons then to the Table of Contents (ToC) for the entire module.

Metacognition: A person's reflection on his or her own thinking processes. By using metacognitive skills, readers are able to make judgements about whether or not they understand what they read.

Narrative text: A collection of written words that seeks to entertain, display knowledge or skill, teach, organize, and plan behavior, most frequently involving imaginative stories with a setting, character, and a plot. Examples of narrative writing: Little Women, A Tale of Two Cities.

Navigation: Navigation refers to the technical process of moving from one feature to another in an online module. The navigation system for Academy modules allows students to follow a critical path, but also to exercise flexibility when they wish to vary from the normal path of progressing through a module.

Paradigm: A pattern or framework intended as a model.

Passive voice: Sentence structure where the subject is being acted upon by something else, as opposed to active voice where the subject is doing the acting. For example, "The players were chosen by the coach" (passive voice); "The coach chose his players" (active voice).

Persuasive text: A type of expository text that takes a position on some issue and justifies it.

Problem-solution text: A type of expository text that states a problem and offers solutions.

Proficient readers: Individuals who effectively and independently use skills and strategies to construct meaning from print.

Pronoun antecedent: A preceding noun phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun that follows. In the example, "Mary saw Tom in the parking lot and asked him for a ride home," 'Tom' is the antecedent of 'him'.

Propositions: Ideas contained within a sentence. A simple sentence would present one idea, but as the sentence becomes more complex, several ideas, or propositions, would be presented in various independent and dependent clauses.

Protagonist: The central character in a story or drama.

Reading comprehension: The process or result of gaining intended and personal meaning from written material.

Relative clause: A clause in which a relative pronoun introduces the clause that refers to an antecedent. Example: The student who spelled all the words correctly won the spelling bee. Who is the relative pronoun, which refers to the antecedent student.

Scaffolding: A way of teaching systematically in which the teacher provides to students, early in the learning process, a significant amount of support in the form of modeling, prompts, direct explanations, and targeted questions. Instruction during this phase is primarily teacher-guided. Then, as students begin to acquire mastery of the targeted objectives, direct teacher supports are reduced and the major responsibility for learning is transferred to the student. When students assume more responsibility, it is referred to as student-guided learning.

Schema: The structure, frame, unit, or script into which knowledge is packed and organized.

Schemata: The plural of schema; a network of many schemas; the structures, frames, units, or scripts into which all knowledge is packed and organized.

Sequential text: A type of expository text that tells what happened or how to do something.

Signal words: Words that alert the reader to connections and relationships in sentences or paragraphs. Examples include "first," "then," "next," "because," "so," etc.

Signaling device: A text structure that clues the reader to the macrostructure and relationships among specific ideas. Visual cues, such as headings, and signal words are examples of signaling devices.

Story grammar: A schema or framework, for the components of a story. In Western cultures, story grammars have the following elements: setting (time, place and character introduction); plot (problem is identified); reaction of protagonist and attempts to solve the problem; and the resolution. Understanding the main character and his/her actions is integral to understanding the story's plot and theme.

Strategic instruction: An educational approach aimed at providing rules or guidelines to help individuals approach tasks more effectively, efficiently, and independently.

Strategy: An individual's approach to a task; how a person thinks and acts when planning, executing, and evaluating the performance of a task and its outcomes.

Structural cue: Cues in written material that clearly marks the organizational pattern of the text.

Survey routine: A routine designed to help students get ready to read a passage by quickly surveying it and analyzing its structure and key content.

Syntactic: Relating to rules of syntax, or orderly arrangement of phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Table of Contents: Each module includes a general Table of Contents (ToC) covering the entire module. Click "ToC" in the top right of the menubar to access the Table of Contents

Temporal clause: Adverbial clauses, which distinguish time in sequence. For example, "When darkness fell upon them, the travelers sought shelter."

Text structure: Characteristics of written material; the way ideas in a text are constructed and organized. Includes overall framework or macrostructure as well as the structure of smaller segments of text related to the macrostructure (e.g., visual cues, signal words, cohesive devices, and sentence level factors).

Text structure awareness: Being able to use the author's construction and organization of printed material as a guide to understand and remember the content.

Theme: The overall idea expressed in a literary work. This may be stated directly or may be implied. The theme is not to be confused with the moral, or lesson, but rather is an exploration of important ideas in human life.

Visual cue: A signaling device or distinctive feature in text structure that helps the reader comprehend the material. Examples include introductory statements, headings and subheadings and signal words.

Visual depiction: Graphic structures used to organize information in a manner that makes the information easier to connect, learn and remember.

World knowledge: Labels, concepts, ideas, and facts about the world in general; general information shared by people in a given culture.